COMPARISON ASSESSMENT OF DIGITAL 3D MODELS OBTAINED BY DRONE-BASED LIDAR AND DRONE IMAGERY

Abstract. The purpose of this study is to assess the potential of drone airborne LiDAR technology in Morocco in comparison with drone photogrammetry. The cost and complexity of the equipment which includes a laser scanner, an inertial measurement unit, a positioning system and a platform are among the causes limiting its use. Furthermore, this study was motivated by the following reasons: (1) Limited number of studies in Morocco on drone-based LiDAR technology applications, (2) Lack of study on the parameters that influence the quality of drone-based LiDAR surveys as well as on the evaluation of the accuracy of derived products. In this study, the evaluation of LiDAR technology was carried out by an analysis of the geometric accuracy of the 3D products generated: Digital Terrain Model (DTM), Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Digital Canopy Model (DCM). We conduct a comparison with the products generated by drone photogrammetry and GNSS surveys. Several tests were carried out to analyse the parameters that influence the mission results namely height, overlap, drone speed and laser pulse frequency. After data collection, the processing phase was carried out. It includes: the cleaning, the consolidation then the classification of point clouds and the generation of the various digital models. This project also made it possible to propose and validate a workflow for the processing, the classification of point clouds and the generation of 3D digital products derived from the processing of LiDAR data acquired by drone.